30th century my home

unwashed potato! · 15 Oct 2018 at 18:00

i'll be purchasing my first home in november and looking to tech it up as soon as money allows. this will prob be a couple years before we're able to get settled and save enough to spend on things, but i'm looking to have a plan of where we want to go, what systems to use etc so that everything is best connected.

i'd love the idea of the following and open to suggestions:

keyless front door entry (standard pvc style door) with either an app or fingerprint (assuming fringerprint entry is even a thing).
doorbell with camera that goes through your phone/home tablet,
phone control of lights,
heating,
potentially external light control
and finally security alarm and cams system.

all tech we own is pretty much google devices, so android phones, google home devices etc, so not sure if that will make a difference if it's best to keep it as much google as possible or if for instance heating can be controlled by google home even if it's not a google product? same with doorbells etc.

as much as possible i'd like to avoid having 10 different apps to control each different part of the house.

at work we use lightwavef, which was fine 5 years ago, but now feels pretty dated as it's just the box you plug anything into, and also you don't get feedback to know whether something is on or not. that's not very user friendly to me.

Psycho Sonny · 15 Oct 2018 at 18:44

there is so much competition and the tech will advance so much in a few years that you are better off asking nearer the time.

keyless entry - yale provide this and it works with nest
doorbell with cam - nest or ring (owned by amazon)
smart lights - LIFX (works with nest), hue, literally hundreds of choices, ikea even do this now.
heating - nest
alarm - yale have smart version, nest also are bringing out their own version
cams - again literally thousands of choices to be made depending on subscription to cloud, local SD cards or local server or local NVR. you could have a 100 page thread just on security cams. again nest do them as do ring but their subs are really expensive.

unwashed potato! · 15 Oct 2018 at 19:25

thanks for that. i appreciate as time progresses new tech comes out, but i'm hoping to best avoid buying into a system that isn't future proof. lightwave rf for instance i could chuck in the bin and start again, wasting a good £250 with the router link, power device, bulbs etc, as the interface not giving any feedback as to the current state of the device is, to me, silly. i want to be able to know if lights are left on, and change their current state, what the current temp is set to on the thermostat etc.

i'm hoping to purchase bits not, and add along the way. would you say google home/hub is a good base product that then controls the devices you purchase as and when you get them?

do amazon products talk to google ones?

darael · 15 Oct 2018 at 19:34

In last week's news: https://www.theinquirer.net/inquire...larm-app-goes-down-due-to-network-maintenance

A 24-HOUR borkage of the app that supports Yale's so called 'smart' locks and alarms left households across the UK struggling to arm and or disarm their burglar alarms.

DXP55 · 15 Oct 2018 at 19:41

By the 30th century perhaps a front door key might be all the tech you need along with a paraffin lamp and camping stove.

Do you mean 2030 or 3018

DrCheese · 15 Oct 2018 at 20:36

Alarm my friend has Somfy protect, you put sensors on all your windows & doors which can detect entry/attempted entry (So someone ramming it will set it off) - You then carry a thob on your keychain that disarms the alarm automagically when you walk into the house. It's kinda cool as you can then use IFTTT then do a bunch of other stuff based on it.

Tho I did find it creepy when catsitting for him that he got alerts on his phone saying I was there!

the_r_sole · 15 Oct 2018 at 20:58

Don't bother thinking about it at the moment imo - wait until you are in position to do it, the technology moves quite quickly with this stuff at the consumer end.
(If it was me I wouldn't bother with any front door/door bell stuff, you introduce a remote locking system and eventually someone is going to find the easy way to rob you.)

unwashed potato! · 21 Jan 2019 at 16:02

ok so we're in the position to get the ball rolling now.

We've currently got a google mini in the house, but will look to add a home and another mini in the future.

our first automation will be to change our lamps and lights. I've seen LIFX do good LED multi coloured bulbs that don't require a hub and seem an ok price. We'd look to get 6 of these or so. Interested if that's any other suggestions? our requirements being multicoloured (though only 3 actually we'd likely ever change colour), controlled from google home via the home app, and via our google home mini.

I assume having say a motion sensor turn on a smart bulb is not something the smart bulb needs to be able to do, but say a hub of some sort?

second step would be to change to a nest thermostat. Does anyone know if a thermostat can be installed in another room without the need to reconnect the thermostat cables directly to it? Our thermostat is currently installed in the kitchen. The coldest room of the house with no heating and it's right down a corner so not the great spot. We'd prefer the controller to be in the lounge, but would be getting someone to rewire. Am hoping that it's possible that Nest could be powered in one room but have a device that plugs into the old thermostat cable to send the data? probably not likely but thought worth checking.

The next steps, though not for a while, would be nest doorbell and cameras, and motion sensors that will turn on certain lights if the time is late enough etc.

Martynt74 · 21 Jan 2019 at 17:00

The Nest thermostat is wireless. You have a "hub" connected to the boiler and then just place the thermostat in whatever room you want (just needs power)

unwashed potato! · 21 Jan 2019 at 17:03

ah great news. makes things a bit easier.

Martynt74 · 21 Jan 2019 at 17:05

Amazon have a deal on LIFX bulbs at the moment, but when i looked they're no cheaper than Hue ones and i think i'd prefer Hue just due to the wide range of motion sensors etc. Especially when the deals kick in (starter kits for £80/3 for 2 etc)

crinkleshoes · 21 Jan 2019 at 17:09

LightwaveRF was recently recommended to me. Seems you don’t like it, seems very good value for what it can do.

Fibaro looks really interesting to me, but I’ve heard there are some support issues with them.

jellybeard999 · 21 Jan 2019 at 17:14

Fairly sure the answer is no said:
Does anyone know if a thermostat can be installed in another room without the need to reconnect the thermostat cables directly to it? Our thermostat is currently installed in the kitchen. The coldest room of the house with no heating and it's right down a corner so not the great spot. We'd prefer the controller to be in the lounge, but would be getting someone to rewire. Am hoping that it's possible that Nest could be powered in one room but have a device that plugs into the old thermostat cable to send the data? probably not likely but thought worth checking.

Nest has a hub (heat link) and the thermostat itself.

The heat link connects to the boiler with wires and connects to the thermostat wirelessly over the network. This could go where your existing thermostat is, or you could wire it in with new wires to the boiler and hide it away. I don't think you'd want it on display.

The thermostat is powered by micro usb and can be wall mounted, stand mounted (sold separately) or i guess just left lying on the side if you wanted lol.

I have my heating zoned, and my heat links are next to my boiler in the garage and each connects to the thermostats in the house

SimonR · 21 Jan 2019 at 19:52

I am really sorry to tell you but after doing HA (x10 and Comfort Alarms) for nearly 20 years the general consensus is that ‘future proofing’ does not exist and as technology gathers pace in this sector, it is never likely to. Even basic cable infrastructure has changed. cat5 —> Cat5e —> Cat 6 —> Cat 6a —> cat7
In the past 6 or 7 years
10baseT —> 100baseT —> 1000baseT etc . If you are interested in HA live for today and enjoy it.

DampCat · 22 Jan 2019 at 08:30

I would strongly recommend against keyless entry. It's the fastest way to steal a car, they're the fastest padlocks to break. There isn't a good precedent. It might not be the tech, rather that the companies can't be trusted to adequately construct it.

For now the "safest" thing to do is just make your house more effort than your neighbour's. I'm not going to open the "recommended eurocylinder" can of worms on this forum (buy a Mondeo, don't have a corner sofa, brick up all your windows); I just want to advise against keyless.

Martynt74 · 22 Jan 2019 at 08:33

Are there any stats out there for how many break-ins have occurred where the lock is something like the Yale L1 smart lock? I've been eyeing up the Yale Nest lock when it hits these shores.

SimonR · 22 Jan 2019 at 09:24

As a former Police Officer who has attended hundreds of burglaries I can unequivocally say that your average burglar is not smart enough to defeat a smart lock by hacking / picking it. What he will do is smash glazing panels, kick the door panels out, brute force the frame or if he is high-tech, snap your eurocylinder with a pair of mole grips. He isn’t Nathan Hunt and he doesn’t carry lock picks or lock picking guns.
That said I have not seen any TS007 certified smart locks and this is the standard that you should be looking for with external locks and door furniture. So for me, I won’t be using any until they meet the secure by design standard.

unwashed potato! · 22 Jan 2019 at 09:27

Would ts007 be part of a likely requirement for insurance do you think?

DampCat · 22 Jan 2019 at 10:05

SimonR said:
As a former Police Officer who has attended hundreds of burglaries I can unequivocally say that your average burglar is not smart enough to defeat a smart lock by hacking / picking it. What he will do is smash glazing panels, kick the door panels out, brute force the frame or if he is high-tech, snap your eurocylinder with a pair of mole grips. He isn’t Nathan Hunt and he doesn’t carry lock picks or lock picking guns.
That said I have not seen any TS007 certified smart locks and this is the standard that you should be looking for with external locks and door furniture. So for me, I won’t be using any until they meet the secure by design standard.

That's all well and good but we have plenty of evidence to show how fast it is to steal a keyless car. It's also the fastest growing rate of car theft. Your experience is based upon a period where "smart locks" aren't common place, as they're only now starting to make a noticeable appearance on the market for homes. I also at no point alluded to anyone being a secret agent so please don't attempt to discredit me by making me look a conspiracy theorist fool. You can buy the necessary tools to steal keyless cars on eBay for a couple hundred quid. One signal booster, one signal replicator. You can open smart padlocks in seconds by shorting them or bypassing (which they all have because batteries). It's not hard.

It's also very simple to prevent someone snapping your eurocylinder with mole grips.

As with all things, as they become more common, they will become targeted.

Additionally buying a smart lock isn't going to prevent people doing all the things you mentioned re: door panels and the classic ocuk "windows" response.

I don't know what Yale have in store for their smart locks, I only stated that the precedent for smart locks in other sectors so far on a consumer level are total dog **** and its terrible advice to then advocate them to protect someone's home. I certainly can't in good conscience. Maybe you can, go nuts.

danlightbulb · 22 Jan 2019 at 11:21

SimonR said:
He isn’t Nathan Hunt...

Nathan Hunt

Ethan's council estate dwelling spotty faced teenage brother.